Karli Poyfair: Cancer survivor, Dustin turned eight and other things to catch up on

Anyone who knows a thing or two about the family I married into - The Ortons - knows that they are a sturdy, rock-solid bunch. They come from pioneer stock, they came over in wagons, helped settle the state of Utah.

My wife cherishes and epitomizes these aspects of her heritage. I've never met someone who works harder than her. She's sometimes remarked to me that she feels like she'd would have enjoyed living in the pioneer times.

And she's never sick. I've often joked that in her mind, the only good reason for someone to miss church is if they're 'bleeding out of a stump.'

During our marriage I've always been the sick one. When I'm puking out my guts, Karli's the one making sure the household runs smoothly. In the rare cases she's sick (usually when she's pregnant) she still runs circles around me.

Thats why the past nine months have been so strange for our family.

It all started last summer when Karli came down with a pretty severe cold that morphed into something a lot worse. She could never get her breath and her coughing sounded pretty bad. True to Orton form, I had to drag her to see a doctor who informed her that she had a severe case of pneumonia.

So, Karli had to get some rest and recover or she might have to spend some time in the hospital. Hospital? Karli? Who did this doctor think he was?

So, she started to recover a bit. Then she immediately got sick again. This time it wasn't pneumonia, it was more like a flu. Of course, this was during the height of the swine flu 'season' and we never found out for sure if she actually had swine flu, but her doctor again took a look at her and sent her to a ear nose and throat specialist to make sure everything was all right.

While he was looking at Karli's throat, he noticed something that didn't feel quite right on her throat and sent Karli to have an MRI on her throat.

When the results came back, they found what they called 'abnormal nodules' on the left side of her thyroid and recommended she get them removed through surgery. It was no big deal, the doctor said, nothing really more than a precaution.

So a few days before Thanksgiving Karli and I went to the Timpanogos Medical Center where she had half of her thyroid removed. Before Karli came out of the anesthesia the doctor told me that she did great during the surgery and that she'd be back to normal in no time.

Karli's Mom and Dad came to take care of the Thanksgiving festivities and had a beautiful Thanksgiving meal all ready to go when I brought her home. She was in some pain, but as always, Karli recovered very quickly and was back at work a few days after the surgery.



At this point we thought this small ordeal was over and that Karli's life could finally return to normal after several months of sickness and surgery.

About two weeks after the surgery was performed Karli got a strange call from her doctor telling her that he needed to talk to her in person. We know from Dad Craner that Doctors are very busy people who only request meetings with their patients when there's something serious to discuss.

Sure enough, the pathology report that came back from the surgery indicated there was cancer on the removed thyroid -- not a lot (maybe a milimeter in total) but enough to warrant taking out the other half of the thyroid that was still in her body, just in case.

So, at this point I've become very nervous that my wife has cancer - even if it's just a little bit. Those of you who know me also know that my parents both died of cancer before I turned 11 and that the idea of cancer in any of my loved ones is a terrifying fact to come to grips with.

Karli and I have often joked that I would be the one who would die of cancer at a young age. Knowing that my wife had it in her body and still probably had some in her was a terrifying moment for me.

I called Dad Craner to talk to him about it and he brought me right back in off the ledge by explaining that thyroid cancer caught this early is a completely curable disease that almost never returns. It's also a very localized version of cancer that is easily treated and removed. I learned that if you're going to have to have cancer, this is the one you sign up for.

With that talk out of the way, we scheduled the next surgery for the week after Christmas. Karli was not happy to go through the same ordeal she'd just lived through, but I wasn't allowing her to make a decision any other way.

She again sailed through the surgery with flying colors and was recovering just fine again when we got the pathology report back for the second surgery. This time we learned that the removed thyroid on the other half of her throat also had cancer -- four millimeters in length.

The nature of the thyroid surgery forces the surgeon to take out most of the thyroid, as it is connected to some very delicate glands that cannot be touched. So, the next step for Karli was to get some very localized radiation treatments to 'burn' out any remaining traces of her thyroid.

Now, keep in mind that the thyroid is what regulates your metabolism. If you have no thyroid, then your metabolism slowly grinds to a halt and you get very, very tired. So, while this is going on, Karli is then required to prep for the low level dose of radiation by eating an 'iodine-free' diet.

I don't recommend this diet to anyone reading at home. Just about every good food in this world has iodine in it. Strangely enough, the bad tasting food in this world is generally iodine-free. While not going into too many details, her diet consisted of stuff like egg whites, salad with no dressing and cashews with no salt.

Blech.

And once she received the low level dose of radiation, she could come with in six feet of anyone - not an easy thing to do in our family and in our house. - for several days. When this scan finally came back, the doctors then prescribed the higher radiation dose which meant that she couldn't be within 15 feet of anyone for 10 days.

And she still had to eat that yucky diet.

Luckily, we have a great friend (James Conlee) who got Karli set up in a hotel room close to our house for a very reasonable fee.

And I became Mr. Mom - kind of. We got tons of help from the wonderful people in our ward and my two awesome nieces - Gretchen and Natasha -- who cooked meals, cleaned and generally made my life a lot easier without Karli around.

When the last scan came through and they pronounced that Karli was thyroid and cancer free I think we all let out a large sigh of relief. Sure, it's great to know that Karli will be fine, it's also great to know that we can continue on with our lives once more.

So now, Karli starts the long process of getting her thyroid medication just right. And until that dosage is perfect, she's going to be super tired.

But we have her back to normal again and that's an amazing thing.

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On December 1st, 2009 our youngest, Dustin, turned eight. In addition to the normal cake, ice cream and presents, he also finally old enough to do two other pretty cool things.





He decided to get baptized...

Dust and I

Confirmation Circle: Bishop Vince Stroud, Devin Orton, Mike Darrington, Brandon Halcrow, Grandpa Greg Craner, Pat Poyfair, Dustin Poyfair, Grandpa Wayne Orton, David Craner, Jordan Smith, Troy Smith, James Conlee, Jared Allgood, Joel Rookwood.

Dustin with Great Grandma Craner.

Dustin with his buddy, James Conlee.

Dustin with Grandma and Grandpa Craner.

Dalllin, Dustin, Katelyn, Kristen and Great Grandma Craner.

We loved having Devin and Amy Orton with their kiddos -- this is Cache. They also brought beautiful Naomi too.

and he join cub scouts....


Karli and I have had fun watching how much fun he's had with Cub Scouts. He loves the meetings. He loves his uniform, his book and his pocketknife. For his 'famous person' report he chose to write about Lord Robert Baden Powell.


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Katelyn turned 13 on December the 13th. She had a fun party complete with presents, cheesecake and a Twilight Sleepover.



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Last Fall, we loaded the kids into the van for our yearly pilgrimage to take fall photos. This year we forced my niece Tasha Hubner Johnson to go with us to take the pictures. Here are some of them....


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This Christmas was especially fun in that we got to spend a lot of time with my awesome sister Brenda and her amazing daughters (and Mark too). They currently live in Germany but were all here for Tasha's wedding to Eric Johnson. They were super busy, but we were able to snag them for Christmas eve.

Dallin with Alayna, making cookies.

Arya, Katelyn, Gretchen and Saige.

Everyone in this picture is enjoying Dustin and Kristen's piano and drum duet.

This is Arya, Alayna and Mark performing their talent -- you had to have been there.

While Brenda dazzled us with her origami and story telling skills.

and Mark played ball.

Katelyn and Karli played 'O Holy Night.'

Brenda and Me.

Saige and Dustin with baby Jesus.

We love the Hubners and had so much fun with them. I guess we'll have to visit them in Germany now.

and here are a few Christmas shots, just for fun...

Dustin is tearing through his stocking.

While Krissy got a few pretty dresses.

Dallin got an American Eagle Sweater.

and Katelyn got a new phone.

For Christmas we also took the family tubing at Soldier Hollow. We try to do this every year and had a blast.



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So, you probably know it can be a while inbetween my blog posts. If you want to see what I'm doing on a nearly daily basis (and who wouldn't?), follow me on Twitter, or 'Friend' me on Facebook.


And Dallin wants me to tell all you xbox players out there to play Xbox live with him. His xbox code 'poyboy5150'


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So there's an update for you. As always, comments are always welcome. Especially about this picture of me in a pink snuggie.